Anne Wellington, a highly regarded healthcare executive with extensive corporate management experience, has been named managing director of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator. The accelerator provides mentoring and financial support for early-stage healthcare companies as part of a 90-day program with the goal of bringing health-tech innovations to the marketplace.

Prolonged exposure to particulate matter in air pollution in the Los Angeles Basin triggered inflammation and the appearance of cancer-related genes in the brains of rats, a Cedars-Sinai study has found. While previous research has documented the association between air pollution and a variety of diseases, including cancer, the study found markers indicating certain materials in coarse air pollution—nickel, in particular—may play a role in genetic changes related to disease development, said Julia Ljubimova, MD, PhD.

Cedars-Sinai investigators, led by Waguih William IsHak, MD,FAPA, professor of Psychiatry and vice chairman for Education and Research, have been awarded $2.6 million to study and compare evidence-based approaches for treating depression in people with advanced heart failure.

Cedars-Sinai investigators are examining the risk factors associated with mental health issues experienced by many women after giving birth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 percent of women who give birth each year report symptoms of postpartum depression. Many experts believe the condition is even more prevalent, but the stigma associated with mental illness can prevent new mothers from seeking help.

Research from Cedars-Sinai sheds light on how the human brain rapidly forms new memories, providing insights into potential new treatments for memory disorders. A new study examined neurons that produce dopamine, a compound that acts as a transmitter for nerve impulses. It found that these dopamine neurons play a critical role in the formation of episodic memory, which allows people to remember such things as where they parked the car in the morning and what they had for dinner last night.

Thanks to artist John Baldessari, the new umbrellas in the Cedars-Sinai Healing Gardens provide beauty as well as shade. The 11 umbrellas are printed with images of Baldessari’s well-known white, puffy clouds against a blue sky.

Physicians from Cedars-Sinai and Stanford Children’s Health are teaming up to offer the newest treatments and surgical techniques to patients born with heart defects.
The new collaboration between the two prominent institutions features doctors from the Smidt Heart Institute’s Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program at Cedars-Sinai and the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Both teams focus on treating patients born with heart defects who require specialized care throughout their lives.

Scientists have re-created brain neurons of obese patients using "disease in a dish" technology, offering a new method to study the brain's role in obesity and possibly help tailor treatments to specific individuals.

Investigators at Cedars-Sinai are exploring a new way to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by transplanting specially engineered neural cells into the brain. Their new study shows the transplanted cells delayed disease progression and extended survival in animal models.

In 1942, George Berci was one of hundreds of Jewish conscripted laborers who were packed into a railroad car as human freight -- bound for a concentration camp. Berci survived the war and the subsequent 1956 Soviet invasion of Budapest. He went on to pioneer developments that led to a medical revolution of minimally invasive surgeries.